5 Common Food Choices Ruining Your Health
We all want to enjoy a long life with good health but we also want to be able to eat whatever we want, drink whatever we want, and enjoy our lives. Unfortunately, our food choices may be cutting our lifespan short and we don’t even realize it.
Fried Foods
Whether it’s at restaurants, carnivals, or home, we love fried foods, but fried foods don’t love us. Consumption of fried foods has been linked to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Some Keto dieters justify that by cutting carbs, they need to increase their fat consumption. And that’s true. But not all fats are created equal, and most fried foods are not just fried in unhealthy oils but also breaded, undermining the benefits of your Keto diet.
Alcohol
While the occasional beer or glass of wine will be filtered through your body easily, frequent drinking, especially of hard liquor, will begin to adversely affect your body as the alcohol accumulates in your system. Excessive alcohol can permanently damage your liver, pancreas, heart, cause sexual dysfunction, hallucinations, and cancer. Under the right social conditions and excessive consumption, alcohol can be intensely addictive, requiring specialized treatment to recover (499).
Processed Foods
Processed foods are foods that are made using mixtures of unhealthy chemicals, high carbs, and unhealthy fats. They tend to be any food that is pre-packaged and waiting on store shelves for you to buy. These foods are full of hidden sodium and sugars that can cause high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, and other diseases. Processed foods are usually very low in nutrients but high in sugar and empty carbohydrates which have earned them the nick name of “junk foods.”
Refined Sugars
We’re big fans of cutting carbs, but even if you’re not 100% on board with Keto, you need to take a hard look at cutting sugar out of your diet. A refined sugar is the result of a raw sugar that has gone through a purification process. This includes brown sugar, powdered sugar, icing sugar, granulated sugar, and liquid sugar. Frequent consumption of refined sugars can cause obesity, type 2 diabetes, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Even moderate consumption puts stress on the liver and prevents ketosis. Sugar triggers the release of dopamine in the brain making it a very addictive substance.
Margarine
While both butter and margarine have their pros and cons, margarine stands out as containing the most oil, fat, and chemicals. Butter is a more natural option but is also heavy in saturated fats. The reason margarine wins as the worst of the two options is that it is comprised of at least 80% oil and heavy in saturated fats. The trans fats in margarine can raise your LDL (bad cholesterol) and cause heart disease.
It’s sad to see so many of our favorites on a list of foods that are ruining our health. Luckily, there are many healthy alternatives to our favorite unhealthy foods. A simple online search will give you recipes and healthy replacements for your favorite unhealthy foods.
